Cartagena

June 5-8

Originally, Selina and I had planned on staying in Bogota for a few days and then spending a week on the coast in and around Cartagena.  But after hearing mixed reviews of Cartagena and talking with two couples who raved about a small town Zona Cafetera (coffee region) called Salento, we decided to cut our time on the coast down to three days.  This ended up being the perfect amount of time to enjoy the romantic colonial ambiance of the historic center while developing a cursory understanding of the city’s history.

As in Ecuador, roads and bus transportation in Colombia are VERY slow.  To take a bus from Bogota to Cartagena would have taken 20-22 hours, which may have been an interesting adventure if we had several days to break up the journey.  But with many places to explore with limited time, we decided to skip the suffering and splurge on the one-hour flight to Cartagena.

Cartagena (“the heroic city”) was in its heyday one of the most important ports in the Spanish Empire.  Settled in 1533, its strategic location on the northern Caribbean coast of South America facilitated a rapid transformation into the main port from which most of the continent’s mineral wealth was shipped to the Old World.  Due to the huge treasuries of gold, silver, platinum, copper and emeralds stored within the city, it rapidly developed into an opulent center complete with churches, houses, administrative buildings, and theaters. The Spanish colonial architecture in Cartagena has a Caribbean flavor similar to that of New Orleans—balconies, old-fashioned streetlamps, handcrafted wood doors and wrought-iron window bars adorn the tidy, bougainvillea-covered buildings on the district’s narrow streets. The numerous horse-drawn carriages that ply the streets complete the romantic ambiance.

Also due to the city’s wealth, Cartagena was a target for pirate attacks.  Over the centuries, the city sustained six major attacks from French and British forces seeking to plunder the city’s resources. Francis Drake terrorized the coast on multiple occasions, once firing a cannon through the front doors of  the main cathedral, while the French military under Louis the XIV plundered the city again, using the spoils to finance the construction of the palace of Versailles. After each attack, the Spanish crown and the Catholic Church improved the substantial fortifications around the historic center.  Today the imposing city walls (built to prevent attacks from the sea) and a fortress overlooking the city (to prevent land attacks), are a testament to this legacy.

Although the historic center is filled today with cafes, bars, restaurants and boutiques, it has managed to retain some of its cosmopolitan identity. While upper class Colombians crowd its chic (and expensive!) modern bistros, the city’s numerous public squares allow Colombians of all socioeconomic levels to rub elbows.

In our last night in Cartagena, Selina and I took a break from fancy sit-down restaurants and joined the younger crowd, which was eating pizza and drinking beer on the benches of a public square. We quickly realized that the pizza and beer were coming from a takeout window in one of the buildings on the square, and that waiters would find us wherever we choose to sit. With electronic music blaring from the restaurant’s speakers, we ate our pizza and enjoyed the sophisticated, innovative atmosphere of such a historic place.

Advertisement

Explore posts in the same categories: Uncategorized